The News and Observer
Opinion/Editorial
By ROXANE PREMONT AND JANINE HANSEN
DURHAM -- Our ground troops are stretched to the breaking point, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in South Korea and in many other nations. The National Guard is doing the job of the active duty military. The Army's use of "stop-loss" orders to forcibly retain soldiers who have technically ended their term of duty is a limited back-door draft. The Army Reserve is missing its enlistment targets by 30 percent, despite sweetened sign-up bonuses and tuition grant incentives.
If the Defense Department can't get enough volunteers to meet the demands it faces, U.S. officials have two options: downscale their activities to match available resources, or institute conscription to increase their abilities.
As former Reagan administration Pentagon official Lawrence Korb has warned the Bush administration, "You've got about another year -- if you don't cut back in Iraq, your all-volunteer Army and Marine Corps are going to be in big trouble."
The Bush administration continues to deny the need for a draft. But actions speak louder than words, and the groundwork has been laid already.
In preparation for renewal of the draft, buried in the pages of the No Child Left Behind Act is a provision that requires high school principals to notify Selective Service of graduating boys and girls. Why females? And why after 25 years are they suddenly worrying about males who aren't registering on their own?
The single largest reason to expect a draft comes from the ambitious, even utopian, agenda set out by the president: to "democratize" the Middle East. According to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, this is a "generational commitment."
"Democratization" of more nations equals ever greater need for troops, and "generational commitment" implies that today's 2-year-olds might serve in tomorrow's continued democratization of Iran and Syria.
Columnist Pat Buchanan has argued that this is really asking Americans to enter a state of "endless war," a recipe for national destruction.
Perpetual war needs perpetual soldiers. One draft proposal being floated is for a permanent, Israeli-style conscription: everyone of both sexes, for two years starting at age 18. Washington Monthly's March issue suggested selling the draft to the public as "national service" by -- at first -- giving conscripts a choice between involuntary servitude in social service agencies such as AmeriCares, or in the Armed Forces.
This service-cum-draft would provide a large standing army that would continually be refreshed with new recruits. There is a clear danger here. When leaders know they can count on a conscripted military, they are inclined to enter into new wars more casually, regardless of public support or the supply of volunteers. No adventure seems too ambitious when more troops constantly appear.
Conscription, at its most basic level, assumes that citizens are property of the state, rather than the state existing to serve those citizens. The idea that people are property is called slavery.
When to expect a draft? After the trial-balloon phase, it would be politically expedient to foist this upon us in the dark of night just after the 2006 congressional elections.
The best time to stop this draft is before it starts.
Only two congressmen have responded to a Mothers Against the Draft opinion survey. Only Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, has been willing to commit himself in writing to oppose the draft.
Every citizen deserves to know whether his or her congressman supports slavery; and every congressman needs to be reminded that honorable service can only be rendered by free men.
Roxane Premont of Durham and Janine Hansen serve on the national board of Mothers Against the Draft (mothersagainstthedraft.org).
Article can be found at: http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/columns/story/2353843p-8731417c.html
